


Something Ineffable

by TryingToBe



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, POV Skye | Daisy Johnson, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-22 17:28:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30042204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TryingToBe/pseuds/TryingToBe
Summary: “So I’m looking for a vengeance demon. You know any good ones?”-Robbie and Daisy reunite
Relationships: Robbie Reyes & Skye | Daisy Johnson, Robbie Reyes/Skye | Daisy Johnson
Comments: 12
Kudos: 36





	Something Ineffable

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place following an alternate season 7 that is the same but with no Sousa. This was how I originally wanted Daisy’s story to end before s7 started airing. I actually love the canon ending but I miss Robbie and I still love quakerider. Hope you enjoy!

Daisy has had a very long few months. She traveled back through time, got tortured, traveled forward in time, watched her mom die, traveled forward in time again, died, got brought back to life, and now she is here. Here wasn’t such a bad place to be though, all things considered, and she’s feeling pretty okay about it as she drives though LA. When she finally reaches her destination she parks the car in the street. Then she steps out and stands in front of the passenger side door, staring at the unassuming house in front of her.

According to her intel it wouldn’t be long until he showed himself. She leans back against the car, _Lola_. Coulson had let her borrow it with the promise that she would exercise the utmost caution. She smirks to herself at that. She could be cautions. For sure. She holds the car keys in her right hand, fiddling with them, flipping them over on the keychain rings and catching them. The sound is surprisingly soothing.

Daisy doesn’t have long to wait before her target shows himself. He steps out into the sunshine, locking his front door behind him. He turns around and sees her standing there.

She smirks. “So I’m looking for a vengeance demon. You know any good ones?”

Robbie Reyes stares at her in surprise for a moment. Then he just raises his eyebrows slightly, looking her up and down, taking her in. She knows she looks different. Older, her hair longer and lighter, less black makeup. And maybe she stands a little taller too. Moves a little freer. But for all she is different, he looks the same. He even has the same leather jacket. But of course, appearances can be deceiving.

“Daisy. Long time,” he says casually, walking over to stand across from her like it hasn’t been two years and about a hundred lifetimes. A literal lifetime, in her case. She did die, technically, in space. (He was right, there was nothing, just darkness.)

“Yeah it’s been a minute,” Daisy says, unable to stop herself from smiling at him. That isn’t something they really did, as far she can remember, the whole smiling thing, but it’s really good to see him.

He smiles back, too, and he has a nice smile, she realizes. But then he quickly frowns. “How’d you know I got back?” he asks her. “Has SHIELD been watching me?”

Daisy scoffs. And, okay, she might have several alerts set up to notify her of anything that looks like the Ghost Rider but she’s not going to tell _him_ that. She has some pride, still.

“Hardly,” she says. “Your brother called. Said you were in town, brooding. I thought I might stop by. See how the night job was going.” She watches him carefully as she says it, trying to figure out where his head is at. Nothing too bad, as far as she can tell. And she likes to think she _would_ be able to tell, if he were on some kind of edge. When Gabe had called, he had been worried, but not frantic.

_“It’s like he’s, looking for something,”_ Gabe had tried to explain. _“But I don’t know what it is he can’t find on his own. Or with that, thing, inside him.”_

“We called a truce to stay local,” Robbie admits. Daisy wonders if the Rider figured out that if Robbie lost all hope he would make for a bad host. Endless killing was never going to be an option for him. There had to be some goal to accomplish. And maybe she can help with that.

Robbie looks a little sheepish though, like maybe staying local wasn’t what he thought it would be. Daisy nods with understanding. “But Gabe’s not here, he’s at Stanford and now you don’t know what to do with yourself,” she says knowingly.

Robbie looks questioningly at her. “How often do you talk to my brother?” he asks.

Daisy shrugs. “We email.”

“You, seriously?”

“He’s a good kid. Snarky little shit, but he grew up with you so…” She smiles teasingly, but then her voice trails off. Because he asked her to look after Gabe and she tried the best she could, but getting swooped off through time and traveling through space and everything with everything had made it hard. “I uh, haven’t been around as much as I could have, but, I tried.”

“Thank you,” Robbie says sincerely.

“It was the least I could do.”

Robbie clears his throat. “So what do you need me for? More robots to take care of.”

“Shit I hope not.” She has had enough of antagonistic robots to last her several lifetimes, thanks. Robbie lets out a snort of surprised laughter at that. “I’m starting a new team,” Daisy explains. “Could use the firepower.”

He frowns at that statement, like he’s a little hurt by it, but covers it up quickly. And, well, maybe that’s fair, because that’s not really the whole answer. If she wanted more firepower, there were other people she could ask or find. But Robbie is not other people. And it’s not like she’s been waiting for him to come back, exactly, but, he’s here now, and that’s good.

“I could use someone I trust,” she tells him quietly. “I was thinking, maybe you could use a friend.”

Friends. They _were_ friends, weren’t they. She doesn’t know what word there is for- we fought ghosts together but then you got whisked off to a hell dimension and I got whisked off to a virtual fascist reality and then we came back and fought robots together only for you to get whisked off again. (She doesn’t know what the word is for- you looked into my soul and found something worth protecting.) Friends is a good word. Even if there was a brief moment when she thought, maybe, someday, they could be something more. Someday.

He looks at her now, the way she remembers he does sometimes. The way that it feels like he is looking inside her, only it’s not uncomfortable or intrusive. She just feels, seen. And shit, she _missed_ him. She didn’t realize how much she missed him until now.

“You might be right about that,” Robbie admits, softly.

Daisy feels the corners of her mouth pull up into a smile. “Think the two of you can work out a deal and come with me?”

“I think that can be arranged,” Robbie says, with his own hint of a smile.

They get in the car together, her driving and him in the passenger seat. And she takes them out of the city.

“So,” Robbie asks as they move slowly with the traffic, “Who’s on this team of yours?”

Daisy smiles coyly, “Oh, just a Yoyo, a Mockingbird, and an annoying British man.”

It was going to be chaotic as all hell, of that she has no doubt. And she’s looking forward to it in a way that she hasn’t anything in a long time. When Mack had offered her a team of her own she jumped at the opportunity. Off the grid was where she worked best, and it meant that Bobbie and Hunter could be pulled back into the fold, especially since most of the intelligence community really didn’t care about them after everything. It was going to be interesting, that was for sure. Even more so with Robbie. She had tried to push to get Kora on board too, but Mack flatly refused until Kora had significantly more training and graduated the full Academy.

_“Tremors,”_ Mack had said exasperated, _“the paper work for this team is already giving me headaches and you haven’t even started yet.”_ And, okay, that was fair. That level of chaos might be enough to tear a hole in the universe and start an entirely new timeline or something.

She starts to tell Robbie about the others. He knows Elena already, but Hunter and Bobbie he had never met. And she tells him about their plans. About their new mobile response unit for all of the alien reports that were still cropping up.

“Sounds fun,” he says, all mock sarcasm that he knows she sees through.

“I’m counting on it. And who knows,” she glances over at him and raises an eyebrow, “maybe we’ll even see something weirder than you.”

He scoffs, but he smirks a little, too.

It’s different, talking with Robbie now. Because they are different. She is so much lighter than she ever was when he knew her before. Not that the bar was particularly high, but time and work had healed at least some of those old wounds. (She tries not to think about the new ones.) And he is different too. She’s sure that wherever he has been these past two years was hell, literally, but he doesn’t seem as hardened by it as she knows he could be. Maybe he feels what she feels, as they drive away from the city. There is the sense that they are leaving all of it behind them for a new adventure. And somehow, she finds they still fit, these new versions of them. With all of their sharp edges slotting into place beside each other and all of their soft tissue hiding in the pauses between their heart beats.

They drive in silence for a while, just sitting in the quite and no pressure to fill it with empty noise. And there’s something between them she can’t really describe. Something that’s always been there, and it’s...nice. Like coming back to an old sweatshirt she used to wear for comfort, and finding that it is just as warm as she remembered.

When they finally make it out of the city, away from all of the buildings and people, she turns to him.

“Hang on,” she tells him mischievously.

He stares at her. “What..?”

“Car might not be self healing, but Lola has a few tricks.” Hitting the appropriate buttons, she brings them into the air.

Robbie quickly looks all around and down, taking in the sudden view. Then he looks back at her, grinning. “Cool.”

There is something incredibly endearing about the fact that this man who has seen literal other dimensions still gets excited about a flying car. Always the mechanic she supposes. Daisy bites back the ridiculous urge to giggle and instead smirks as she flies them off through the sky.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
